Technical.ly received special recognition during the 2026 LION Sustainability Awards as one of 11 Sustaining news organizations in LION’s updated maturity model for independent news publishers. The announcement was made in San Diego at the annual conference of the well-regarded national association of local publishers.
That’s 11 out of close to 500 audited, or 2.5 percent. I wrote more here.
This really shows how rare, and how hard, sustainability is in local news in our post-newspaper digital era.
Sustaining news businesses have built foundational and mission-critical operational and financial infrastructure, and you can learn more about this designation and top characteristics in this post.
In short though, the distinction is for journalistic impact, operational resilience and financial health.